Romany and Tom

Publisher's Summary

Ben Watt’s father was a working-class Glaswegian jazz musician - a politicized left-wing bandleader and composer - whose heyday in the late 1950s took him into the glittering heart of London’s West End. His mother, Romany, the daughter of a Methodist parson, was a Shakespearean actress who had triplets in her first marriage before becoming a leading showbiz feature writer and columnist in the ’60s and ’70s. They were both divorced and from very different backgrounds, and they came together at a fateful New Year’s Day party in 1957 like colliding trains.Romany and Tom is Ben Watt’s honest, sometimes painful, and often funny portrait of his parents’ exceptional lives and marriage, depicted in a personal journey from his own wide-eyed London childhood, through years as an adult with children and a career of his own, to that inevitable point when we must assume responsibility for our own parents in their old age. Spanning several decades - and drawing on a rich seam of family letters, souvenirs, photographs, public archives, and personal memories - it is a vivid story of the postwar years, ambition and stardom, family roots and secrets, big band jazz, depression and drink, life in clubs and nursing homes. It is also about who we are, where we come from, and how we love and live with each other for the long term.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

Stories help us make a difference.

The compelling stories of both his Mom and Dad and all his family will help many have multiple connections to to the challenges faced by the author, Ben Watt and his family. They were also entertainning! For me...reading about his passionate parents and how Ben watches them grow old shows the need for compassion for those around us who are facing similar challenges. Giving those who are earlier on that path, some of the wisdom from Bens empathy and compelling story telling. Wisdom will help to make a difference. Thankyou.